Mao's Dream
by alicekinsno1
Summary: One night, Mao has a wonderful dream where he gets everything he wants..., and then wakes up to discover that it really is only a dream. Set shortly before C.C. abandons him.


Mao's Dream

_ So I wrote another fanfic! This one takes place shortly before C.C.'s abandonment of Mao. The eponymous dream sequence and title come from works I found on DeviantArt. I OWN NOTHING (and deserve NO credit for the DA pictures)!_

It was a beautiful, warm summer day. The sun was shining as Mao wandered around the field hand-in-hand with C.C., now that their field work was done for the day. C.C. was wearing a new dress that Mao had seen in town the last time he had gone there (Mao himself wore only the usual rags). Her belly was very, very round and starting to stick out as the child she was carrying grew inside of her. She needed the longer clothes. "I've never seen you look so happy," said Mao softly to her, his high, silky voice loaded with affection.

"I don't think I've every been so happy before," said C.C., facing him with a smile.

"You're the best," said Mao. "I don't need anything in the world but you." He then knelt down and put a hand and an ear on C.C.'s belly. "I think I just felt the baby kick," he said excitedly.

"Mao," said C.C., "Can you read the baby's mind?"

"I'm... not sure," said Mao, "I might've gotten something, but... it isn't thinking in words."

"I see," said C.C., helping him up. "It should be born by the end of the summer."

"Oh, excellent," said Mao. "I have to say this isn't quite like how I usually build- I like to see what I'm working on!" He smiled hugely, and C.C. laughed a little. "But you can feel it, right?" he asked her.

"Yes, now," said C.C.

"This... this is exciting!" He grabbed both of C.C.'s hands and gazed at her.

"Isn't it?" said C.C.

"And I'm gonna be the best father ever!" Mao declared, "Not at all like mine!"

"You're very eager," said C.C.

"You look like you're... glowing," Mao murmured softly.

"Am I?" asked C.C., examining herself. "Pregnancy hormones, I should think."

Soon they returned to their favorite pile of rocks, and sat down. Suddenly, Mao put his arms around C.C.'s waist and pulled her close to him as gently as he dared (for fear of disturbing the baby), running his fingers through her hair. He buried his nose into her head and sniffed, but, for some reason, she smelled like nothing at all. "I love you, C.C.," he crooned, tilting her chin upward with his hand and rubbing her nose with his own.

"I love you too, Mao," said C.C.

The next second Mao closed his eyes, and then he heard C.C.'s voice: "Mao? Are you awake, Mao? Mao!" Mao's eyes fluttered open and he saw C.C., wearing the same rags she always wore, and just as thin as always.

"C.C.," said Mao, struggling to sit up.

"Yes, it's me," C.C. admonished. "Put on sunscreen, quick. It's almost afternoon." Now that Mao was a teenager, he liked to go to sleep and wake up later than he did as a child. When he was younger she had dragged him up to tend the garden, but now she had mostly given in to fate and allowed him to sleep as late as he wanted- provided he still put on sunscreen before the sun became its strongest. Their shack had lost a few planks in its roof, and now provided only partial cover. "You looked like you were having a very nice dream," C.C. added, more gently.

"I was, I...," Mao began, turning to face her and holding her hands. "C.C., will you marry me?"

"I... no," said C.C., pulling away and averting her eyes.

"Please, C.C.," said Mao.

"I... can't."

"B-but I had this wonderful dream, we were married and going to have a baby and..." Mao started to cry.

"You did?" said C.C.

"Mmm-hmm," Mao mumbled through his hands.

"Well... it was just that," C.C. argued, "A dream. Nothing more." And she wondered if now she would be having dreams of sleeping with the boy whom she had taken care of since he was a child, as though raising him to be her sex slave, of a disastrous wedding ceremony involving a bunch of people Mao couldn't stand to be around, of the heartbreak Mao would have to endure if he wanted children when no children came, and of when Mao was an older man, no longer handsome, looking more like her father than anything else, and still as needy as he was now... "You don't want to marry me," she continued.

"Yes I do!" Mao whined.

"Trust me, Mao," said C.C., "I'm not the woman you want- I'll only make you miserable."

"But then who can be?" Mao protested. "You're the only one I can even talk to."

Something inside of C.C. snapped and soured in her stomach. "You really want that to stop?"

"But why can't I just marry you?" Mao protested.

"It's just some passing lust, Mao, trust me," said C.C., "I get like that all the time."

"I promise I'll be the most loyal, loving husband in the world!" Mao continued.

"How do you know I'll be the same to you?" said C.C. She wondered if she ought to talk about all the love affairs and one-night stands she had had on a whim, or persuaded herself away from in the nick of time. She decided against it. "What if you get older and I start sleeping with younger men who look better?"

"I'll take you back as many times as you need," Mao promised. "I'd do anything for you." He reflected for a moment. "Do you want to have babies? I know I do...!"

"I'm infertile," said C.C. "I can't bear children. It's a side effect of my immortality." When she turned back to face Mao, he was lying in the corner, sobbing.

"Why aren't I good enough for you?" he cried.

"Mao...," said C.C., "I'm so sorry. Of course you're good enough for me, just not... that way." She crawled over to him and placed her arms around him. "You want to go for a walk?"

"Oh... yeah," said Mao. "But... will you let me hold your hand?"

"Sure," said C.C., helping him to his feet.

They went to explore the area around them. To one side, the fields where the two of them had grown their crops for years lay, now weedy from neglect. Mao's little inventions were scattered all over the site, mostly rusty, broken, or decaying. The rope and pulley system installed to help get water to the field was close to falling apart. C.C. refused to look at Mao directly in the face, and was always a step or two in front, as though pulling him along. "Soon," she muttered under her breath, "Soon we'll be away from here, once and for all. He'll go off on his next adventure, and I'll be free from my immortality at last. Once he's immortal he can sleep with a thousand different women- he'll forget all about me and his dream."

That night, C.C. was lying half-asleep, trying to think soothing thoughts, when suddenly, she felt Mao's arms around her, and his hands running up and down her body. When she turned to face him and tell him to move to the other side of the shack, she realized to her horror that he was completely naked. "Mao... what do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"Can't I at least make love to you?" said Mao. "You're so..."

"No!" C.C. shouted in shock. "Absolutely not! Go to the other side of the shack, now!"

"Oh, come on! Please!" Mao begged. He followed the look C.C. inadvertently gave the area below his waist. "Y-you don't like it?"

"You're... big," C.C. muttered, wondering whether to be impressed or repulsed. "Mao, you're missing the point!" she continued. "Look, it's... it's not that I don't like you, that's not why I won't sleep with you. But... it's a different kind of love."

"What are you saying?" asked Mao.

"You're like a son to me, Mao," said C.C., "You know that. About the only think I didn't do for you was actually give you birth."

"So?" said Mao.

"People don't sleep with their sons," C.C. said, in a voice so stern it couldn't be argued with.

"Oh... okay," said Mao, tears forming in his eyes again as he slunk over to the other side of the shack and buried himself in his rags. He closed his eyes, desperately trying to recall the dream from the night before.

But it didn't return.

**The End**


End file.
